I hope that everyone who reads these words do so with the full understanding that the insiders of the Reagan/Bush era at the time these atrocities were committed are many of the same men now sitting in power in Washington.

Very probably they are the ones responsible for the results of the recent 'election' of the new White House Resident.

I urge you all to read the full story and disseminate this information to all you know.

The politicized press will certainly not do so.

An excerpt from the in-depth article on The Consortium News:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/052699a3.html



"Guatemala, of course, was not the only Central American country where Reagan and his administration supported brutal counterinsurgency operations -- and then sought to cover up the bloody facts.

Reagan's falsification of the historical record was a hallmark of the conflicts in El Salvaodor and Nicaragua as well. In one case, Reagan personally lashed out at an individual human rights investigator named Reed Brody, a New York lawyer who had collected affidavits from more than 100 witnesses to atrocities carried out by the U.S.-supported contras in Nicaragua.

Angered by the revelations about his pet "freedom-fighters," Reagan denounced Brody in a speech on April 15, 1985. The president called Brody "one of dictator [Daniel] Ortega's supporters, a sympathizer who has openly embraced Sandinismo."

Privately, Reagan had a far more accurate understanding of the true nature of the contras. At one point in the contra war, Reagan turned to CIA official Duane Clarridge and demanded that the contras be used to destroy some Soviet-supplied helicopters that had arrived in Nicaragua.

In his memoirs, Clarridge recalled that "President Reagan pulled me aside and asked, 'Dewey, can't you get those vandals of yours to do this job.'" [See Clarridge's A Spy for All Seasons.]

To conceal the truth about the war crimes of Central America, Reagan also authorized a systematic program of distorting information and intimidating American journalists.

Called "public diplomacy," the project was run by a CIA propaganda veteran, Walter Raymond Jr., who was assigned to the National Security Council staff. The explicit goal of the operation was to manage U.S. "perceptions" of the wars in Central America.

The project's key operatives developed propaganda "themes," selected

Published Wednesday, February 7, 2001, in the Miami Herald

Ordeal in Cuba a `signal' for Bush, 2 Czechs say

BY DANIEL RUBIN

Knight Ridder News Service

PRAGUE -- Two prominent Czech campaigners for democracy arrived home here Tuesday, warning that their more than three-week ordeal in a Cuban prison was a message pointedly aimed at the new Bush administration in Washington.

The two men, former Velvet Revolution student leader Jan Bubenik and member of parliament Ivan Pilip, won their release from a Cuban jail after admitting they had violated Cuba's subversion laws by meeting with dissidents. Their release came after an escalating outcry from mostly European leaders about the arrests.

In an afternoon stop in Madrid, Bubenik said their detention ``was a signal directed at Washington to tell them how far they can go,'' and set against the backdrop of the new Bush administration ``when a political stiffening was expected.''

Pilip also warned that with their arrests, ``the Cuban government sent a clear warning to human rights defenders around the world that in Cuba they shouldn't become involved in these types of questions.''

The Czech government signaled its relief with the release, and the two are scheduled to meet with President Vaclav Havel today.

On his arrival, an unshaven but relieved Bubenik said ``the worst thing'' about being jailed 24 days in Cuba was that for the first week, ``we were completely isolated from the world around us. We had no contact with anybody. We didn't even know if someone knew where we were.''

Bubenik and Pilip, a former finance minister of the Czech Republic, arrived in Cuba on Jan. 8, bringing gifts of vitamins, aspirin, a computer and 20 pens. They knew there was a risk meeting dissidents in rural Cuba, but believed they were breaking no laws.

Instead, the two Czechs wound up in six-by-10 foot cells with three other political prisoners. The lights stayed on all night. They had to use holes in the floor for the toilet. The water ran only 20 minutes a day.

MET WITH DISSIDENTS

Cuban authorities arrested the two on Jan. 12 after they met with two dissidents in the island's Ciego de Avila province. The Cuban Foreign Ministry charged they were sowing revolution on a mission funded by Freedom House, a U.S. pro-Democracy organization that the Cubans contended was linked to the CIA. The U.S. government dismissed as ``ludicrous'' the allegation that it had anything to do with the visit.

After first threatening to put the men on trial, the Cuban government demanded an apology from Prague. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan said Tuesday his government had no reason to apologize and insisted that the two men had been freed ``without haggling'' between Prague and Havana.

Bubenik and Pilip signed the statement conceding the violation of Cuban law in front of several foreign diplomats including Anders Johnsson, the Swedish secretary-general of the Interparliamentary Union, which had interceded on the Czechs behalf.

During a stopover in Paris at Charles DeGaulle airport Tuesday, the two men said that they had not gone to Cuba to violate the law and if there had been such a violation, they offered ``their excuses to the Cuban people.''

Adrian Karatnycky, president of the Freedom House, a U.S. organization that presses for democracy, welcomed the release.

Still in question is whether the Czech Republic, which would like to improve its ties with Havana, will continue to take such an aggressive stance on Cuba's human rights treatment.

``I can't imagine that anything that they have learned from this case will lead them to the conclusion that the country complies with human rights instead of violating human rights,'' Karatnycky said.

After their arrest, the Czechs were interrogated separately, then transferred three days later to Villa Marista, a prison for political prisoners.

Pilip speaks fluent Spanish, but Bubenik does not and was able to converse with one inmate in English. When the man was soon moved away, Bubenik wondered if the inmate had been planted to inform on him, his brother Jiri said.

Pilip's wife was allowed to visit on Jan. 21 and afterward told reporters her husband had no complaints about the food. Bubenik's older brother Martin brought medicine, magazines and books that younger brother Jiri had selected after some deliberation. ``We didn't want to send anything American, so I bought Czech authors,'' he said.

PRISON GARB

After the initial visit, Pilip's wife could see him up to 30 minutes a day. After the 10th day, the men were made to wear prison garb and shoes with no laces. Five days before their release, each was moved to a larger space, with separate toilets and only two other inmates. Despite having more room, ``It was really getting more difficult'' for Bubenik, his brother said. ``He had read all the books. He could not communicate. Already the time was running too slowly. It was not easy.''

Bubenik's brother Jiri says Castro took personally what he saw as an attack by a former sister nation. Czechoslovakia was the first nation to help Castro's government after he took power and sent money, weapons and industrial assistance, according to Miloslav Ransdorf, vice chairman of the Czech Communist Party.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, things changed markedly. When Czechoslovakia first signed a U.N. document assailing Cuba's human rights record in 1990, Castro called it ``mean and shameful.''

Last year and the year before, the Czech Republic co-sponsored with Poland a U.N. joint resolution alleging human rights violations in Cuba. About 100,000 Cubans marched on the Czech Embassy in Havana. The ambassador was recalled. Czech citizens were made to obtain visas to travel to the island.

Many human rights workers in Prague cite the U.N. resolution as the motivation for Castro's hard line on the Czech men's activities last month.

Pepe Brito, a Cuban national who moved to Prague before the 1989 revolution, saw Castro's move in a simpler light.

``It is not so complicated,'' said Brito, a 30-year-old restaurateur. ``I think he just got the opportunity to show to the world again that he is the man and that Cuba is an independent country. It is a political game to show power.''

Herald staff writer Jane Bussey contributed to this report.

I may have misinterpreted Mr. Antonio X's intentions in posting

the earlier article (under "Conspiracy?), but I think it all makes

sense now. These Czechs are obviously agents of a U.S. backed

U.N. scheme to discredit the Castro regime. And once again,

when will these UN-supported boo boo heads look at human

rights violations in their own backyard--Russia, US, the Eastern

Bloc, etc. Any sentiments expressed in support of the Bush

administration--i.e. the Czechs said Bush should take notice--

are a obvious flag of what the true agenda is. To put it crudely,

to the Czechs I say, "Y'all need to stop riding the dick!" Bush's that is!